Among the many thoughts considered on the drive home from College Park today was just how bad Maryland’s 38-7 loss ranks among the ACC’s setbacks to non-AQ teams in the BCS era (since 1998).
(As a point of clarification, the likes of Louisville and Utah all count as non-AQs for the purposes of this exercise in the years before they joined an AQ league. Likewise, Temple doesn’t count until 2005, when it left the Big East).
And now, the answer to that question: The last time an ACC team lost to a non-AQ school by 31 points or more was in 2004.
LARGEST MARGIN OF DEFEAT FOR ACC SCHOOL vs. NON-AQ SCHOOL, 1998-PRESENT
42: Wake Forest at Air Force, 1998 (42-0)
37: Duke vs. Louisville, 2002 (40-3)
34: Wake Forest vs. Connecticut, 2003 (51-17)
34: North Carolina vs. Louisville, 2004 (34-0)
31: Maryland vs. Temple, 2011 (38-7)
30: North Carolina at Utah, 2004 (46-16)
28: Duke vs. East Carolina, 2000 (28-0)
28: Georgia Tech vs. Utah, 2005 (38-10)
27: Boston College at Central Florida, 2011 (30-3)
25: North Carolina vs. Furman, 1999 (28-3)
25: Duke vs. Navy, 2006 (38-13)
20: N.C. State at Southern Mississippi, 2006 (37-13)
20: Virginia at Wyoming, 2007 (23-3)
